NDIA awarded Disability Confident Recruiter status

The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) strives for a workforce of employees who have a lived experience of disability or an understanding of disability either professionally or personally.

Awarded Disability Confident Recruiter (DCR) status by the Australian Network on Disability (AND), the NDIA recently finished an intensive course designed to help businesses breakdown common barriers in recruitment practice.

“The NDIA is committed to attracting, supporting and retaining people with disability in our workforce and to be an employer of choice for people with disability. The DCR program was one step towards our goal to be a world leader in the employment of people with disability,” said Tina Daisley, General Manager, People and Culture NDIA.

AND’s DCR program provides businesses with tools and resources to help them grow their ability to recruit support and retain talented people with disability.

Consisting of an e-learn with tailored consultancy sessions, it identifies and addresses barriers which may inadvertently prevent applicants with disability applying for roles.

Feedback from NDIA’s employees about the online disability awareness training was positive. ‘We learnt new things and gained a deeper awareness of accessibility in the recruitment and interview processes,” said one participator.

Because of the training, the NDIA has implemented a number of changes to their recruitment process.

“Our recruitment team are aware of the level of accessibility in our offices around the country, particularly our temporary venues. This information is also now available to candidates on our website,” said Racquel Patman, Recruitment Director NDIA.

“We also made changes to our position descriptions to ensure they only list the essential requirements of the role and are free from unnecessary or misleading requirements. And, we require all interview panel chairs to undertake the disability awareness training module, which helps to support a nationally consistent approach,” she added.

The NDIA acknowledge that achieving DCR status was challenging.

“There were a few obstacles for us. The main one being gathering accessibility information about our many property locations,” said Racquel. “Some are stand alone, while others are temporary or co-located. It was a big sense of achievement to complete this piece of work."

One of the most rewarding aspects to come out of the program is that the NDIA is the first Commonwealth agency to obtain the status.

“We hope to provide inspiration and encouragement for other departments in the APS and private sector to sign up for the DCR program with AND,” Racquel concluded.